Thursday, February 25th, 2010

We had to wake up at 5:00am this morning! Insanity! No one in my dorm went to bed before 2:00am. Needless to say, we were all exhausted. We packed breakfast and lunch, then boarded the coach at 6:00am. Slept for most of the three hour bus ride as we drove to Wales. The signs are very cool in Wales; they are in both English and Welsh.

Our first stop was Tintern Abbey. We walked around the ruins of Tintern Abbey, which are some of the most spectacular ruins in the UK because the Abbey was built in 1131. We stopped there because we are studying William Wordsworth in Brit Lit, and he was inspired by the Abbey to write one of his poems.

After Tintern Abbey we drove to The Big Pit: National Coal Museum. It is a museum dedicated to the Welsh heritage of coal mining. This mine was in operation until 1980, when it was shut down. It then opened to the public as a museum in 1983. The pit was first worked in 1860. Surprisingly, we had so much fun at Big Pit. The shaft goes down into the earth about 300m. Our guide was Wayne Cooper and he was hilarious. They split our group into smaller groups for the tours, and my group got the best tour guide. He was informative, but more importantly hilarious. He was so funny. He used to be a miner, but retired and became one of the tour guides at the museum. Wayne took us down inside the mine. We had to wear hardhats with lights attached. The light was attached to a special battery that was belted around our waist. Also on that belt was a CO2 gas mask for emergencies. The belts were pretty heavy. We looked hot! We got to go down the lift into the mine. Our tour was so much fun! He led us along different paths, cracking jokes the entire time. It was pretty hard to understand his accent some of the time, but he was still freaking hilarious. It was a good thing we were given helmets, because everyone kept smashing their heads against the low ceiling. I never banged my head! I was talking to one girl, telling her about climbing up the narrow and steep passages into the heart of the pyramids, and she was telling me about a time when she went caving and how narrow it was, when all of the sudden she smacked so hard into part of the ceiling. Everyone stopped and stared because it was such a powerful hit. It was really funny though. We started cracking up, and Wayne made so much fun of her. Wayne taught us a lot about the mine. Big Pit is the largest mine still in use today. It is also the biggest with a shaft. He told us some sad stories about young children having to work in the mines before there were laws forbidding it. Really young children (too young to work) were brought down with their parents, but tied to doors in the mines by a ten foot string while their parents worked. They were left in complete darkness with rats and stale air. It would have been terrifying. We experienced this darkness when we all turned our head lamps off. It was pitch black. You can’t even see your hand in front of your face. Horses and ponies were also used in the mines to pull coal carts around underground. This was a very sad bit of history to me as well. These horses wouldn’t see daylight for 50 weeks of a year. They would often go blind because of this treatment. So sad. We also learned how to read an oil lamp flame to detect the level of methane in the air. Too much methane and BOOM, the entire mine would explain. That’s why they used to have canaries in the coal mines. Because a canary is so small, if there was too much methane in the air it would pass out, alerting the workers that they needed to evacuate soon. They have moved on to much more modern equipment since then. We made our way out of the mine safely.

We then went to St. Fagan’s National History Museum. It is an open-air museum in Cardiff. It features the historic lifestyle, culture, and architecture of the Welsh people. The grounds around the museum are beautiful. There were some very pretty ponds and fountains, as well as lots of greenery. We visited an Elizabethan Manor House/castle, explored a wool mill, saw a man weaving beautiful shawls, and went through the museum. It was pretty, but not very thrilling, as we spent too much time there.

We drove to our hotel in Cardiff. Everyone was frustrated that they assigned us roommates to our hotel rooms. We stayed at the Mercure, which was a fairly nice business hotel. I was worried, because apparently previous groups had stayed in some real dumps. We had two people per a room. My roommate was Michelle Erickson. I like Michelle. When we got into our rooms we were very happy to see two large comfy beds. We then jumped on the beds, turned on the TV and were happy to hear a Mika song playing. Had a brief rock out session. Haha, so on my key packet they gave me a new name. It is a new spelling that I have never seen before. I will now be going by Ali El Eardani. I like it. After getting settled, we walked to the center of Cardiff. We came to a cross walk that went across a free way entrance/exit. We waited on the corner forever. It was impossible to cross. Finally we all ran across screaming! We explored for a while and looked for food. Our small group decided to go to Chimichangas, a Mexican restaurant. I did not want to go to a stupid Mexican restaurant in Wales. Not cool! Lame people. My food was not very good, and it was all over priced. Lame! After dinner, though, we went to a little café and I got a delicious chocolate mousse cake slice. It was so good! I have tasted a piece of heaven! We headed back to the hotel. I decided to take a shower, and boy am I glad that I did. The shower was amazing! There was tons of hot water, great pressure, space to move around in, and most of all privacy! After my shower I went upstairs to hang out in Allyson and Kalyn’s room. We watched Crimewatch on TV, which was the most interesting thing on. It was slightly disturbing. It was a show discussing current crimes, murders, and missing persons in the UK. After each segment they give their phone number and ask people to call if they have any information to help solve the case. After the show we played a few sleep over games, and reminisced about the good old days. Went to bed too late. I was dead tired and should have gone to bed early, yet I waited up until 12:30am. Have to wake up early tomorrow. Oops!